India and Russia strike deal over S-400 missiles leaving US and China on the side-lines
The air defence missile system comes with a US$ 5.4 billion price tag. Russia’s technology was successfully tested in Syria’s war. Big power strategic and geopolitical relations are at stake.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal that would see India buy Russia’s s-400 air defence missile system at a cost of US$ 5.4 billion.
The agreement renews their traditional close bilateral relationship, which goes back to the 1950s, and signals something more than a transfer of military technology, namely a new geopolitical reality in which both the United States and China are simple spectators.
The S-400 is one of the most sophisticated surface-to-air defence systems in the world. It has a range of 400 kilometres and can shoot down up to 80 targets simultaneously, aiming two missiles at each one. What is more, it has been battle-tested during Syria’s civil war, which Russia is using as a warranty of effectiveness.
China has its own version, and for this reason, India had to respond and take a "calculated risk".
For Rajiv Nayan, defence expert at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses think-tank, "India needs to look after its strategic interests. An air defence missile system was the need of the hour”. Although “The US has said that going ahead with the deal would attract sanctions [. . .] Delhi cannot be seen coming under pressure," he explained.
In fact, buying Russian military technology could lead the US to react. Washington has already threatened to enforce the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) against countries that engage in "significant transactions" with Russia, Iran or North Korea.
Yet, in light of India’s recent political moves, including the decision to buy Iranian oil, US threats do not appear to have had any significant impact on Prime Minister Modi.
For experts, many factors explain renewed Indo-Russian harmony, such as the arrival of the Trump administration, Russian help to get India into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as well as its support for the South Asian nation’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls access to nuclear technology, this despite the fact that New Delhi hasn’t signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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